Consumable Yield Testing and Reporting
Overview
Customers are becoming increasingly aware of the cost of owning and operating their
printers and multifunction products (MFPs). The cost of consumable supplies such as
toner cartridges or solid ink sticks is a major component of the Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) for a printer or MFP. The per-page cost of printing is driving many printer and
MFP purchase decisions today, as these costs can be combined with print volume and
print coverage assumptions to give companies a reasonable estimate of the monthly
and annual TCO for a specific printer or MFP.
In the past, printer and MFP original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) used different,
proprietary methods for testing and reporting consumable yields. This made factual
and accurate comparisons of products from differing OEMs impossible. Reporting was
traditionally done using “5% area coverage,” but that did not guarantee comparable
results because many other testing variables affect the stated yield, including:
Page size and margin settings
Image types used to create 5% area coverage
Number of cartridges used during testing process
Number of printers/MFPs used during testing process
Environmental testing conditions (humidity, temperature, and so on)
Lack of stated confidence level for published consumable yield
Any variation in these factors during the testing process can cause nontrivial differences
in reported yields. The development of an industry standard methodology for testing
and reporting consumables yields has helped alleviate these inconsistencies, and gives
customers the reliable information they need to make their technology decisions.
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